9/22/13

So not being able to find canned pumpkin last week, what's the next best thing?
No, I'm not roasting a whole pumpkin and then pureeing it, as much as that sounds like a fun "little house on the prairie" moment, I will pass.
The next best thing was pumpkin butter!
The pumpkin butter at Trader Joe's is pretty good, a little too sweet for me, but it's ok.
It's MUCH better to bake with----
And it's cheap...let's go with that.
This creation came about after I asked on my Facebook page: pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies yeah or nay. And a lot of you said yeah BUT not cakey.
So off I set to create a "crunch-like" pumpkin cookie.
And one of you said pumpkin powder! Where can I find pumpkin powder?
Oh yes indeed.
These pumpkin butter crunch bars are based on the VERY popular ginger crunch bars.
Do I even have to tell you how good they are?
No.
Let me put it to you this way: almost everything I create I give away to friends and family.
These were on the list to give to my doctor and his wife, who are total foodies btw (my doc makes
his own pasta BY HAND--no machine!).
When I dropped these bars off everyone in the office huddled around the plate like a buffalo stance, making those sounds of "ohhh and ahhh and whoa...". Secretly? I love, and I mean love to hear the resounding voices of people in love with my creations. It's literally what drives me to create.
There were I think 12-15 bars on the plate?
In five minutes they were all gone.
Five!!
One bowl easy? Meh, pretty much.
This could also be called pumpkin shortbread, if you doubled up the dough and made it thicker.
A little of this stuff goes a long way....it's strong.
Don't panic when the dough is crumbly, just go ahead and push it the pan!
Icing is strong too, so I only used half (see cook notes).

For me, the icing makes a lot, I just wanted a little bit of
icing, so I only used half and saved the rest of the icing for pumpkin
scones!It keeps perfectly in the
fridge, covered, for a week.I can’t
remember how much pumpkin butter I used in the icing; it was either 1 or 2
TB.So use 1 TB, taste it, and see how
you feel and go from there.

I know a lot of you always ask is there a substitute for the
golden syrup—no, I haven’t found one yet.If you can please invest in buying a can of this, it’s really good and
one can lasts a long time, plus I have the ginger crunch bars you can make with
it!It’s just such a great ingredient for
frostings, icing, etc…

You can use a stand mixer—I mixed by hand.In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar
until light and fluffy. Add in the pumpkin butter

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Mix the dry ingredients into the creamed butter mixture
until well combined.

The dough will be very crumbly!This is fine.

Turn the dough out onto the pan and spread it out, making
sure to get into all the corners.Stick the dough in the fridge for at least 15
minutes before baking.

When ready to bake preheat the oven to 375ºF.

Bake the dough for 18-20 minutes, until it’s light golden
brown or if you want really crunchy then golden brown --I did somewhere in between.

When the dough is almost done baking, make the icing by heating
the butter and golden syrup over low heat in a small pan; add in the powdered
sugar and pumpkin butter. Keep stirring
until it’s all smooth. Do NOT let this boil, take off heat when everything is
nice and combined.

Once the dough is done baking pour the icing over the top (I
used about 1/2 of it). When smoothing
out the icing try not to let it get into the edges. You want the edges to be seen as it gives a
nice decorative appeal when it’s all cooled.

Let this sit for at least 30 minutes to let the icing harden
up/set up.

I can never figure out what to do with that pumpkin butter because it's good, but you're right - way too sweet to just eat! Love the idea of using it in these bars. And pairing it with shortbread. Swoon.

people at the bakery love pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, but i'd prefer something like this. i was actually in trader joe's the other day (!), but i didn't see pumpkin butter. i'll be on the lookout next time, and there WILL be a next time. :)

Thank you so much for this crowd-pleasing crunch bar recipe. Very grateful, too, for the intro to pumpkin butter. I hope there's some left at TJ's. There may be a rush on the product after everyone reads your post!

Yeah, what's up with the no pumpkin every year? I've looked and looked. Usually have several cans (as I've learned my lesson) but last fall, I moved and didn't give it a thought. Chan, from Chan Knits, can get it all year round. She even offered to send me some. Now that's a good blog friend. Pumpkin butter would be a good substitute and your bars look divine.

Oh my gosh, pumpkin butter crunch bars sound awesome! I can imagine why they were gone in 5 minutes :) I also love it when people collectively appreciate my creations. Huddled like buffalos made me laugh!

I had to laugh at the bake and puree comment. I was reading a Pumpkin Smoothie recipe with my seven year old. He thought it sounded good, but was bummed because it called for canned pumpkin and he knew we don't have any. I told him we could just use our own pumpkins. I picked 60+ pumpkins this week from the garden. Baking and pureeing them is just part of my regular life. :) Of course, now I need pumpkin recipes to use up all the pumpkins! I found this looking for a Pumpkin Butter Recipe, so I'll need to whip some up after I get the PB made. This looks delicious!http://kimberlys-cup.blogspot.com

about vanilla sugar blog

Unique eats, creative recipes, as simple as possible.What drives me to create? Seeing dishes in restaurants, meals created on TV, recipes in cookbooks/online, and I always think to myself why didn’t they add this or why did they leave out that? Love to question, love to research, and love to learn about combining different flavors and textures in recipes.Recipe creations please email: vanillasugarblog@aol.com